Alfred Musset, Jules Janin, Dumas, and others. Another
vacancy was to be filled in January, and among the candidates were
President Bonaparte, and the Count Montalembert, who are certainly more
conspicuous in politics than in letters, though one did write a book on
gunnery, and the other one on Elizabeth of Hungary.

* * * * *

Two collections of interesting and valuable official documents have just
been given to the Parisian public. One is called _Archives des Missions
Scientifiques et Litteraires_, and consists of the most remarkable
reports sent to the Government by travellers charged with scientific and
literary missions. The other is the _Bulletin des Comites Historiques_,
and embraces articles relative to history, science, literature,
archaeology, and the fine arts. It is issued by the Committee of the
written Monuments of the History of France, and the Committee of Arts
and Monuments. The most eminent names of French science and literature
are among the contributors to these works.

* * * * *

M. GINOUX, who was sent by Guizot on a scientific mission which required
him to traverse the globe, but who was recalled by the government of
General Cavaignac, has returned to Paris, having been absent several
years. He will soon publish the narrative of his travels, which have
been in Oceanica, Polynesia, Brazil, Patagonia, Chili, Bolivia, Peru,
Equador, New Grenada, Jamaica, Cuba, and the United States.

* * * * *

BERANGER, at the last dates was, and for several weeks had been,
dangerously ill, at his house at Passy.

* * * * *

VERON, the editor of the Paris _Constitutionnel_, is a transcendent
specimen of the voluptuary. He is a large, fleshy, sensual, though by no
means coarse-looking man, with the marks of high living and animal
enjoyment on all his features. He first made a fortune by selling a
quack medicine, after which he became proprietor of the
_Constitutionnel_. His paper is conducted on the quack medicine
principle, with a shrewd view to the profits, and represents the
ultra-conservative side on all public questions. Latterly Veron has made
an arrangement with Louis Napoleon, by which it has become in some sort
the special organ of that functionary. This has made the editor doubly
famous, and in consequence of the crowd desiring to see him which
surrounded the Cafe de Paris, w